Mr. John H. Hinton was appointed Special Agent and sent to White Earth to make a new roll of the Ojibwa. I was informed he added many names, but Mr. O’Brien’s recent letter indicates that this is not correct. The “interests” responsible for the White Earth scandal, petitioned Congress a year ago to make a new roll of the Ojibwa. This bill nearly passed. A Commission of two is now making a roll of allotments, which Mr. O’Brien assures me are not included in the suits.
All lovers of justice may pray that no new roll be attempted. The Linnen-Moorehead list is accurate and has stood the test.
Having assembled as our witnesses the most reliable old Indians, we were able to check up the many errors in the Government roll. Frequently there would be as many as forty or fifty Ojibwa assembled in the schoolroom where our hearings were held. When the interpreter called out such a name as Min-de-moi-yen, or E-quay-zince, or Mah-geed, the other Indians would shout with laughter, and when they had recovered sufficiently they would state they did not know what individual Indian was named as there were a score who might respond to that appellation.
The Ojibwa Indians have had a number of attorneys in the past twenty, or twenty-five years. None of these men seem to have concerned themselves with the prevention of the wholesale thefts of land and timber. The gentleman who acted as attorney at the time of our arrival, became active toward the end of our investigation, and did what he could to secure justice for the Indians. But he had done nothing previously along such lines, and his activities savored of a death-bed repentance. The Secretary of the Interior did not approve his re-election. The full-blood Indians were against the employment of the attorney, and the mixed-blood Indians, headed by Gus Beaulieu, were very insistent that the attorney be retained. During the three years prior to 1909, the attorney had received in salary and expenses about $20,000.
A large council was called in July by the Indians to talk over the attorneyship. Mr. Linnen and myself were spectators, and while we could have helped the poor, ignorant full-bloods, because of our official position, we were compelled to sit in silence and see Gus Beaulieu and John Carl, Rev. Clement Beaulieu and others manipulate the meeting. The first morning, there were sufficient full-bloods to have outvoted the Beaulieu element, two to one. But Gus Beaulieu and his brother, Rev. Clement Beaulieu, consumed the time in speech-making, while Ben Fairbanks sent mixed-bloods in teams all over the reservation to bring in those who would vote according to Gus Beaulieu’s desires. At the afternoon session the full-blood Indians might have carried their point, but they spent their time answering the arguments of the two Beaulieus and others, being cleverly heckled into making long speeches.